The leaders of Volkswagen's supervisory board plan to meet soon to try to iron out an effective working relationship between chairman Ferdinand Piech and chief executive Martin Winterkorn amid a leadership crisis at the automaker, German newspaper Handelsblatt has reported.

Mr Piech, patriarch of the family that founded Volkswagen and a dominant figure at the automaker for more than two decades, triggered the leadership crisis at the Wolfsburg-based firm by criticising Mr Winterkorn in a magazine article this month.

However Mr Piech’s iron grip on the giant German carmaker has been weakened following a confrontation with senior board members last week that nearly resulted in a push to oust him, sources told Reuters. – (Reporting by Jonathan Gould)