A method and apparatus are provided for transmitting and receiving control information in a wireless communication system. A method in a base station includes transmitting, to a terminal, information associated with a number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols carrying a control channel; determining a set of control channel candidates based on an identifier (ID) of the terminal and transmission time information, wherein each control channel candidate included in the set of control channel candidates consists of one of one, two, four, or eight control channel elements (CCEs); selecting at least one control channel candidate from among the set of control channel candidates; and transmitting the control information to the terminal through the selected at least one control channel candidate.