Factbox: Five facts about Iraqi President Jalal Talabani

(Reuters) - Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is seeking another term after parliamentary elections that are pivotal for Iraq as it emerges from sectarian warfare and U.S. troops prepare to withdraw by 2012.

Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), allied with another powerful Kurdish party, has a strong lead over a reform-minded challenger in two Kurdish provinces according to early results released by Iraq's electoral commission.

If returned to the presidency, Talabani, the first non-Arab president of Iraq, would ask the prime minister nominee from the largest bloc in parliament to form a government.

Here are five facts about Talabani:

* Talabani was born near Arbil in northern Iraq in 1933 and became a lieutenant to Mullah Mustafa Barzani, patriarch of Iraqi Kurdish nationalism and founder of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which is now led by Barzani's son Masoud. Talabani joined the KDP at the age of 13 and by 1958 was a lawyer and an inner member of the party.

* Talabani split from the KDP in 1974 and formed the PUK in Damascus the following year. A bitter rivalry with the Barzanis followed and led to alliances with neighboring Iran, Turkey and even Saddam Hussein. With Saddam weakened after the 1991 Gulf War, the Kurds carved out an autonomous zone in northeastern Iraq but Talabani and Barzani disputed control of a Kurdish regional government and fought a bitter civil war.

* Talabani became a key player in post-war Iraqi politics after the Kurds, who had managed to make peace, formed a powerful voting bloc in the Iraqi legislature. Talabani became Iraq's first elected president in more than 50 years in April 2005 and was selected for a second term by parliament in April 2006 as a national unity government was put together.

* Talabani's power base has been threatened by the desertion of a former lieutenant, Noshirwan Mustafa, who established the Change List, or "Goran," which made a strong showing in Kurdish elections in 2009. The top complaint of many Kurds is corruption.

* A bon vivant who has become considerably overweight in recent years, Talabani had previously indicated he did not expect to seek a new term as Iraqi president.

(Editing by Michael Christie and Jon Hemming)