By Rajiv Sekhri

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Russian, Norwegian, Spanish and British shareholders of TUI (TUIGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) are set to fight one another and management at the tourism and shipping group's annual meeting on Wednesday, with group strategy at stake.

At centre stage are shipping magnate John Fredriksen -- Norway's richest man, dubbed the "tanker king" -- and Russian steel tycoon Alexei Mordashov, the country's second-richest man.

Along with U.S. activist investor Guy Wyser-Pratte, owning 1 percent of TUI, Fredriksen was a major force that led TUI Chief Executive Michael Frenzel to drop his twin-pillar strategy and decide to separate its tourism business, TUI Travel (TT.L: Quote, Profile, Research), Europe's biggest, from its Hapag-Lloyd container shipping unit, the world's fifth-largest.

Fredriksen, who owns 11.7 percent of TUI and is the Anglo-German group's biggest shareholder, wants two seats on TUI's supervisory board, but last week TUI appointed a Mordashov ally to its supervisory board, hampering Fredriksen's plans.

Mordashov, with 10 percent of TUI shares, supports Frenzel and wants to launch a strong tourism business in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States with TUI's help.

He and Spanish hotel group Riu, which owns about 5 percent of TUI shares, have said they do not support Fredriksen's ambition to win two seats on TUI's supervisory board.

A source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday that Fredriksen would now accept one supervisory board seat and that he had the support of shareholders with over 30 percent of TUI's share capital.

Fredriksen has pressed for TUI Chairman Juergen Krumnow to leave and had threatened to sell his stake if his motions to get two seats on the board were rejected.