TUNCELI, Turkey, Jan 26 (Reuters) - A self-declared Kurdish regional government in a breakaway region it runs in northern Iraq has appointed its first woman judge, Kurdish authorities said on Saturday.

Gelawej Sa'eed Ahmad was sworn in this month before Jalal Talabani, the head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), in his capital Sulaymaniyah, a PUK party official said.

"This is the first time in Kurdish history a woman judge has been appointed to office," the official told Reuters in Tunceli, eastern Turkey, by telephone from northern Iraq.

"(Ahmad's) appointment shows that the Kurdish government is ahead of many other states in the region," he said.

The PUK has administered the Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq with its rival Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) since wresting control from Baghdad in the wake of the 1991 Gulf War.

The two Kurdish factions earlier this month denied any aim to establish an independent state in the breakaway region, but oppose the rule of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. They said they were committed to a unified Iraq.

U.S. warplanes flying from an airbase in southern Turkey have protected the factions with patrols of a no-fly zone over the region.