Hadden has signed a new rolling deal with Scotland

The 53-year-old's previous deal expired after the World Cup in October and he said: "It remains a real privilege to be asked to continue in the role."

He insisted that he would not have preferred a fixed-term contract.

"I think a rolling contract is entirely appropriate for me and Scottish rugby," he said. "You shouldn't have the luxury of having four years to get it right."

Interview: Scotland coach Frank Hadden

Interview: SRU chief executive Frank Hadden

Scotland reached the last eight of the World Cup in France before bowing out to Argentina.

And Hadden, who took up the job in May 2005, said he would take time to consider his future.

Frank Hadden has presided over a tremendous turnaround in the fortunes of the national team Scottish Rugby chief executive Gordon McKie

But there had been speculation about Hadden's future as negotiations progressed.

"In real terms, it was not long at all," he insisted. "It only took a month chatting amicably to resolve any contractual issues."

But Hadden admitted to some soul searching before accepting the contract that will have its first formal review in November 2008.

"After the World Cup and the obvious disappointment of that, I went away to think about whether I really believed I can continue to make progress with this side, and eventually I decided that yes I do," said Hadden.

"I got an opportunity to present that point of view to the board at the tail end of last month and the board then went away to discuss that.

"There was an incredibly disappointed and frustrated feeling of having missed an opportunity and, after the preparation that went into the whole thing, you take time to recover from that emotionally as much as anything else.

"But, by the time I came back, I was able to look at the World Cup campaign and say that we won four out of the seven games we played, including the two warm-up games.

"We played five games against teams which were higher than us in the world rankings, and we managed to win a couple of these - so all in all it didn't look so bad when I came back."

Hadden said that the sense of frustration was also evident among Scotland's players and he sensed a "real determination" to bring success to the country's rugby fans.

Indeed, Scottish Rugby chief executive Gordon McKie saw no reason why Hadden could not lead the side to the Six Nations title next year.

"We have a good squad and the morale in the squad is first-class," he said.

McKie stressed that keeping Hadden had always been their priority.

"Frank Hadden has presided over a tremendous turnaround in the fortunes of the national team," he said.

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"Frank has now assembled a squad of talented young players who promise much for the future.

"Our recently published new strategy for Scottish Rugby sets demanding, yet achievable, performance targets for our national squad.

"We are confident that the platform for future success has been well and truly established under Frank Hadden.

"And we are therefore delighted that he has agreed to take on the challenge of maintaining that momentum and taking Scotland to the next level."