A special committee on Volkswagen's supervisory board is due to discuss his appointment on Tuesday, according to an advance excerpt of Sueddeutsche Zeitung's Tuesday edition.

Asked whether VW was about to hire Freeh, a spokesman for Volkswagen said the company declines to comment on "speculation".

The carmaker is facing a legal onslaught on several fronts. U.S. owners of vehicles with higher-than-stated emissions are expected to seek billions of dollars in damages, while the U.S. Justice Department has sued VW for up to $46 billion under the Clean Air Act.

Sueddeutsche researched the story together with German broadcasters NDR and WDR, the paper said.

(Reporting by Edward Taylor; editing by Susan Thomas)