Germany's Economy Minister Glos Resigns

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has accepted the resignation of Economy Minister Michael Glos, her spokesman said on Monday.

"The chancellor will accept (Glos's) request," government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm told a regular news conference.

Earlier on Monday, Glos's party, the Christian Social Union, said it wanted CSU general secretary Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg to become the new economy minister.

Glos was widely criticized for his low profile during the global financial crisis, said on Sunday he would submit a request to resign.

Glos wrote to the chairman of his Christian Social Union (CSU) party, Horst Seehofer, on Saturday asking to be relieved of his cabinet post but Seehofer refused to agree.

"I will ask the chancellor tomorrow morning to propose my resignation to the president," Glos told ZDF television after a meeting of top CSU officials in Munich.

Senior CSU official Peter Ramsauer said Glos's successor would be named late on Monday morning.

Glos's resignation request on Saturday had created uncertainty about the future course of Europe's largest economy, which is facing the prospect of its deepest recession since World War Two.

CSU officials wanted to clear up the matter quickly.

Glos was a surprise choice as economy minister after the 2005 federal election, with then-CSU leader Edmund Stoiber having originally been in line for the position.

He has struggled to show the command of economics shown by his predecessor, Wolfgang Clement, making references to deutschmarks instead of euros in speeches. He took a long trip to Asia when the financial crisis broke out.

Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck has taken a more active role in handling Germany's response to the financial and economic crisis. Steinbrueck took the lead on putting together a bank rescue plan and twin economic stimulus packages.

In his resignation letter to Seehofer, Glos said he wanted to resign as he was approaching 65 and had no intention of serving as a cabinet minister after a federal election due in September.

He also said a new start at the CSU following heavy losses the party suffered in a state election last September was another reason for him to go. The CSU is the Bavarian sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU).

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