BERLIN/STUTTGART (Reuters) - The steering committee of Volkswagen's (>> Volkswagen AG) supervisory board will likely meet by Friday to try to resolve a leadership crisis at the German carmaker, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

Piech unleashed a full-blown leadership crisis at Europe's largest automotive group last Friday by telling German magazine Der Spiegel he was distancing himself from Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn.

The six-member board panel includes VW Chairman Ferdinand Piech, works council chief Bernd Osterloh and two other labor representatives, Lower Saxony Prime Minister Stephan Weil and Porsche SE (>> Porsche Automobil Holding SE) Chairman Wolfgang Porsche.

"It's relatively realistic that the meeting will take place tomorrow," one company source said, declining to be named because the meeting is confidential.

A spokeswoman for Lower Saxony, VW's No. 2 shareholder which controls 20 percent of voting shares, declined to comment. The works council didn't return calls seeking comment.

(Reporting by Andreas Cremer and Ilona Wissenbach; Editing by Georgina Prodhan)

Stocks treated in this article : Volkswagen AG, Porsche Automobil Holding SE