Suggestions on http -> ftp upload

[eluser]jazzfanatic[/eluser]
I am building a permission based file uploader that will upload via http and then ftp those files to another server (with larger storage). What I am struggling with, is the progress indicator. Basically there is an http progress and then the ftp progress. Is there a way to pass off the ftp upload to php while still sending the page back to the user, or is there a way to show a dual progress bar, once when it is uploaded to the web server and then another when the ftp progress is done. Anyone done anything like this?