COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Denmark's Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Jakob Ellemann-Jensen said on Monday he would retire from politics with immediate effect following six months' leave due to stress.

Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen will become acting deputy prime minister and economy minister, Ellemann-Jensen told a news briefing.

"I would like to make clear that we will continue our work to implement the government platform, because I believe that the Liberal Party should continue in government," Lund Poulsen said.

Ellemann-Jensen's Liberal Party has trailed in opinion polls since December last year, when it entered a rare reform-oriented bipartisan government with the Social Democratic Party and the Moderates.

The Liberal Party will elect a new chair at a meeting next month.

(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, editing by Terje Solsvik and Bernadette Baum)