Berlin  - Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, a media-savvy conservative, is set to become German economics minister, Berlin sources said Monday, eight months before the German general election.

He would replace Michael Glos, 64, who suddenly said Saturday he wanted to leave after tension with Bavarian Premier Horst Seehofer, the leader of both men's Bavaria-only Christian Social Union (CSU).

Guttenberg was elected in 2002 as a member of parliament in Berlin and rose to become the CSU's spokesman there on disarmament and arms control. He is currently general secretary of the CSU and has shown a deft hand in dealing with the media.

Sources in the party bloc comprising the CSU and Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa that zu Guttenberg's post as general secretary would be taken over by a federal legislator, Alexander Dobrindt, 38.

They said the reshuffle would be announced later Monday by Seehofer in his state capital, Munich.

Newspapers had predicted Sunday that zu Guttenberg would move to Berlin.

In a two-day political crisis, Seehofer initially rejected Glos' resignation bid and told him he would have to remain in office until after the September 27 general election, but then changed his mind. (dpa)