Feb 26 (Reuters) - Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is suffering from extreme exhaustion and dehydration, his office said on Monday, after he was flown to Jordan for medical tests. Following are key facts on Talabani, the first non-Arab to become president of an Arab country: * EARLY LIFE: -- Talabani, born near Arbil in 1933, became a lieutenant to Mullah Mustafa Barzani, patriarch of Iraqi Kurdish nationalism and founder of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) now led by his son Massoud Barzani. -- Talabani joined the KDP at the age of 13. By 1958 the lawyer was an inner member of the party. * KURDISH RIVALS: -- Talabani split from the group in 1974 and formed the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Damascus the following year. A bitter rivalry with the Barzanis emerged. -- The rivalry led to costly alliances with neighbouring Iran, Turkey and even with Saddam. Talabani's worst crisis came in 1988 when Saddam's forces gassed Kurdish towns during an Iranian-PUK offensive in the waning days of the Iran-Iraq war, a defining moment in the Kurdish struggle for autonomy. -- With Saddam weakened after the 1991 Gulf War, the Kurds managed to carve out an autonomous zone in northeastern Iraq. But Talabani and Barzani disputed control of a Kurdish regional government, and the bickering escalated into civil war. * ELECTED: -- Talabani became a key player in post-war Iraqi politics and watched the Kurds come second in Jan. 2005 elections and win 60 percent of the vote in local polls around Kirkuk. -- Talabani became Iraq's first democratically elected president in more than 50 years in April 2005 in a huge symbolic victory for the Kurds. In April 2006 parliament elected him for a second term as politicians began putting together a national unity government after months of deadlock. * FOREIGN RELATIONS: -- President Talabani made his first foreign trip as head of state to Jordan in May 2005 to discuss security and economic ties. -- Talabani travelled to Syria in January 2007 to discuss security and ask Damascus to control its borders and stop insurgents moving into Iraq.
