Humphrys has admitted behaving "unprofessionally"

The contract will see Humphrys present the programme seven days a fortnight, a BBC spokesman confirmed on Tuesday.

There was speculation he had threatened to quit after a comment on the Iraq war by the Archbishop of Canterbury was cut from one of his interviews in October.

But a BBC spokesman said Humphrys had not "seriously considered" resigning.

I behaved in a most unprofessional manner, yes. Well you shouldn't lose your temper should you? John Humphrys

In an interview in The Times on Tuesday, Humphrys said he had behaved "unprofessionally" when he lost his temper after learning that a pre-recorded interview he had conducted with Dr Rowan Williams was to be cut.

Towards the end of the bulletin listeners could hear Humphrys shouting in the background.

"I behaved in a most unprofessional manner, yes. Well you shouldn't lose your temper should you?" he said.

Interview leaked

Asked whether he had threatened to resign over the affair, he said: "I was very, very cross and I did say things with hindsight I probably didn't mean."

Dr Williams' views were made public after a transcript of the missing section of Humphrys' interview was leaked to The Guardian newspaper.

Humphrys had asked Dr Williams whether he thought the Iraq war was "immoral".

A 12-second silence followed before Dr Williams said he would find it "very hard to give unqualified support to the rightness of that decision".

Dr Williams later complained about the question to the Today programme editor, Kevin Marsh, who agreed to remove the section of the interview.

Humphrys, asked by The Times whether he had leaked the extract to The Guardian, said: "Absolutely not."