UPDATE 1-Soccer-Rehhagel extends contract with Greece until 2010

(updates with quotes, details, background)

By Karolos Grohmann

ATHENS, March 29 (Reuters) - Greece coach Otto Rehhagel on Saturday extended his contract with the European champions until the 2010 World Cup, the country's Football Association president Vassilis Gagatsis told reporters.

"It was a brief meeting and very easy because Mr Rehhagel wanted to stay on," Gagatsis told reporters 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.