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"It was a brief meeting and very easy because Mr Rehhagel wanted to stay on," the Football Association president Vassilis Gagatsis said after the deal was struck. "He wants to finish his career in Greece."

Rehhagel took over unfancied Greece in 2001 and led the team to a stunning Euro 2004 triumph in Portugal. They have also qualified for this year's European championships in Austria and Switzerland starting in June.

Rehhagel, by far the most successful and longest-serving Greece coach, had said for weeks he would have to look at the offer very carefully.

"I am an idealist but also at the same time a realist," he said earlier this week regarding the contract negotiations.

Rehhagel's first match was a 5-1 drubbing by Finland in 2001, instantly raising alarm bells among the fickle Greek fans who assumed the former Bundesliga coach, then in his early 60s, would just wind down his career before retiring.

But he proved his critics wrong with a spectacular qualification to the 2004 tournament and an even more stunning performance that saw Greece lift the trophy in one of the biggest upsets in the history of the sport.

Greece then stuttered when they failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup but Rehhagel's team was among the first countries to seal qualification for this year's Euro tournament.

"The FA announces that the contract has been extended until the summer of 2010 after an agreement between the two sides," the FA said in a statement on Saturday.

Rehhagel has achieved cult status in Greece and is known by his nickname 'King Otto' following the Euro 2004 triumph. But his insistence on picking certain players and leaving others out of the squad for years has often enraged media and fans.

Rehhagel has 43 wins, 16 draws and 19 defeats since taking over the national team, the best record of any Greece coach.

Reuters