Password Protect Application And Folders

I have an application where a user needs to login to be able to access the app. This login is being done via PHP sessions. After the user is logged in they are sent to a page that contains 2 frames. One frame is used for navigation and the other frame loads in the content. The content that is being loaded into the frame resides on the same server as the app but in a different directory. That directory is password protected by Apache so when the content is loaded into the frame another dialog box appears and the user has to login again to view the content. Is there any way to bypass this 2nd login if the user is already logged in via session?
Thanks,
-P