Sting 'to release new album of original songs'

Sting is currently touring North America with his Back to Bass tour

Pop star Sting is to release his first full-length album of original material since 2003, the New York Times reports.

The Last Ship, due in September, will feature songs the Tyneside-born artist has written for a stage musical about shipbuilding in the north of England.

Sting's output over the last decade has included an album of lute music and 2010's Symphonicities, which featured symphonic covers of some of his songs.

It is hoped The Last Ship will open on Broadway in 2014.

Set in a shipyard in Wallsend, England, The Last Ship is set against the decline of Newcastle's shipbuilding industry in the 1980s.

Sting has been working on the project for three years and his collaborators include John Logan, writer of James Bond film Skyfall.

The show is set to be directed by Joe Mantello, the actor and director best known for Wicked.

According to the New York Times, the title track is "a waltz-time folk tune, heavy with Christian imagery and told in a Northern English dialect".

Sting, real name Gordon Sumner, was born in Wallsend in 1951. After a brief spell as a schoolteacher, the singer formed The Police in 1977.

Between 1978 and 1983, the band enjoyed a string of hits including Message in a Bottle and Every Breath You Take.

Sting is currently touring North America with his Back to Bass tour.