HANOVER, Germany (Reuters) - Volkswagen (>> Volkswagen AG) is creating a new truck holding to align its MAN and Scania divisions, pushing its long-standing goal to become Europe's largest truck manufacturer.

The new Truck & Bus GmbH will coordinate strategy across the truck brands including purchasing, development and human resources, VW said on Tuesday, citing an agreement by the automaker's supervisory board.

The announcement was published ahead of what will likely be a tense shareholder meeting following the shock ouster of Ferdinand Piech as chairman 10 days ago.

It shows VW is keen to address the structural shortcomings that Piech complained about before provoking his public showdown with Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn.

Works council chief Bernd Osterloh said in a statement: "We need clear structures in the group to act swiftly and flexibly in the various business areas... We support the goal of taking our place among the world's leading (truck) players."

Wolfsburg-based VW has spent billions of euros over the past decade on expanding stakes in Sweden's Scania and MAN (>> Man SE) to generate cost savings and take on market leaders Daimler (>> Daimler AG) and Volvo (>> Volvo AB).

VW's holding in Scania will be transferred to the new division, VW said, adding that its own commercial-vehicles unit will also be part of the newly-launched truck holding.

(Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Kirsti Knolle and Georgina Prodhan)

Stocks treated in this article : Man SE, Daimler AG, Volkswagen AG, Volvo AB