The UK Government will activate “all penalty clauses” in G4S’s contract to cut the bill for the taxpayer in light of chaotic security arrangements, the British sports minister said today.

G4S faces continued pressure today over the Olympics security debacle, as share prices continued to fall.

The furore over the G4S Olympics contract showed no signs of fading as the security firm’s shares fell another 6% today.

The head of G4S today insisted he was the right man to make sure the firm delivered as many Olympic guards as possible, despite the on-going security debacle.

The head of G4S is under pressure to quit his £830,000-a-year (€1.05m) job as he prepares to face questions from MPs over the Olympics security debacle.

More than 20,000 G4S guards have been accredited to provide security for the Olympics but the firm is unable to get them to turn up at venues, it has emerged.

The first competitors are due to take up residence in the Athlete’s Village for the London Olympics today, after a weekend in which the security of the event was called into question.

London’s Olympic Games is not threatened by a major security contractor’s failure to find enough staff, the head of the city’s organising committee and ministers said yesterday, seeking to quell a political storm before athletes arrive.

Security firm G4S said today it will meet the full cost of deploying thousands of extra troops to the London Olympics after it failed to supply sufficient numbers of security guards.

Brtain's Home Secretary Theresa May denied that Olympics security was a shambles today after the British military was called in to plug a gap left by the failure of private provider G4S.

Hopes that politicians will make further progress tackling the eurozone debt crisis this week saw world markets make cautious gains today.

Global security firm G4S today said robberies affecting its cash handling staff in the UK "continues to be an issue" for the business.

Group 4 Secretor said today it had seen an increase in the number of robberies on its cash handling staff in the UK.

Angol-Dutch Security firm Group 4 Securicor today said it was in talks to sell its struggling German cash services business as it reported a 4.7% increase in first-half earnings.

Group4 Securicor highlighted the success of its merger almost two years ago by adding 21% to the size of its annual dividend today.

Chief executive of Securicor PLC, Nick Buckles, has said he believes the group's key markets should pick up in the second half of 2004 even though current trading has remained difficult.

Securicor is poised to raise £167m (€246m) by offloading its stake in a parcels and logistics joint venture to German postal operator Deutsche Post.