"We talked things through last week and agreed on a cooperation," the newspaper quoted Piech as saying. "I am not pushing the dismissal of Martin Winterkorn."

Earlier on Thursday, Germany's NDR broadcasting network reported that Piech wants to oust the CEO ahead of VW's May 5 shareholder meeting, without citing its sources.

A spokesman at Piech's office in Salzburg declined to comment on the Bild report.

VW said there's nothing to add to the April 17 statement of the supervisory board's steering committee which gave full support to Winterkorn.

(Reporting by Andreas Cremer; editing by Thomas Atkins)