Clooney won the best supporting actor Oscar earlier this month

Past stars Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta Jones will not be in the movie, but Ellen Barkin is to join the cast.

Clooney will once again play Danny Ocean, who will lead another lucrative robbery in Las Vegas.

Ocean's Eleven, made in 2001, was a remake of the 1960 movie starring the original Rat Pack of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.

The 2001 film and its sequel, Ocean's Twelve, have together earned more than $800m (�459m) worldwide.

The third film will once again be co-produced by Section Eight, the production company co-owned by Clooney and Steven Soderbergh, who returns as director.

Significant roles

Ocean's Thirteen will include original cast members Matt Damon, Andy Garcia and Don Cheadle, but producer Jerry Weintrub said there were not significant roles for Roberts or Zeta Jones in the current script.

"We didn't have a place to really use talent like theirs, two big stars like that," said Weintrub.

"They're very good friends of ours, and neither Soderbergh nor I would prevail on them to come back and do nothing just to do it."

The film is scheduled to start shooting in Los Angeles in July, with the latest sequel due in cinemas next summer.