Krzyzewski told a news conference that he was honoured to remain in his post.

He said: "It's obviously a huge honour for me to continue on as United States national coach.

"We want to win another Olympic gold medal and we want to win the 2010 World Championship in Turkey."

The 62-year-old Krzyzewski, the son of Polish immigrants, is coach of the Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team, who he has led to three NCAA Championships, 10 Final Fours, third most in history, and 11 ACC Championships.

Jerry Colangelo, the chairman of USA Basketball, said: "It was very easy to walk away, but I just don't think people who are accustomed to competing or high achievers walk away.

"You just keep competing."

Krzyzewski said: "It would have been really hard [to walk away].

"In my coaching career, I don't really have any regrets.

"Obviously you'd like to have won a certain game or two, but as far as decisions of where I coach and what I'm doing, I've led a very charmed life.

"And I think if I didn't do this, I would have regretted it."

Krzyzewski will become the first US coach of multiple Olympic teams since Henry Iba, who won gold at the Tokyo 1964 Games and Mexico City 1968 and coached the team that lost the controversial 1972 gold-medal game to the Soviet Union in Munich.

Colangelo said: "We don't have term limits at USA Basketball and so when you have a great thing going, you keep it going."

The return of Krzyzewski, a college coach who was well liked by the NBA's best, could influence some top American players to again at London 2012.

Krzyzewski said: "I think they understand that their job isn't over, either."

After winning gold in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the Americans fell to sixth place in the 2002 World Championships and managed only a bronze medal two years later in the Athens Games.

Colangelo took control of USA Basketball following those embarrassments and instituted a programme to better prepare the Americans for international competitions.

He chose Krzyzewski as the programme's coach even though no US senior team had been led by someone from the college ranks since NBA players began competing in the Olympics in 1992, when Krzyzewski had assisted Chuck Daly on that squad.

Colangelo said: "I said at the time he was the right guy at the right time, and that certainly proved to be the case."

Krzyzewski said: "I know that the guys who played for us in Beijing, they became part of our family.

"Why wouldn't we want to do it again"?

Krzyzewski has led the US team at two previous World Championships.

In 1990 he was coach of a group college players that lost to a powerful Yugoslavia squad and a team that included LeBrown James and Dwyane Wade but was upset by Greece in the 2006 semi-finals in Japan.

It has been his only defeat since returning as US coach.

The Americans are holding a minicamp this week for 23 young players who could be candidates to play for Krzyzewski, will not run these practices, leaving those duties to Toronto's Jay Triano.

Joining Krzyzewski on the coaching team again will be Jim Boeheim, from Syracuse University, Mike D'Antoni, from the New York Knicks, and Nate McMillan, from the Portland Trail Blazers.

Krzyzewski said: "We all felt as a staff the work wasn't over.

"Our goal this time is to make it even better."