Jan 27 (Reuters) - Ingibjorg Gisladottir, head of Iceland's Social Democratic Alliance, has been asked to form a new coalition government with opposition parties to lead the North Atlantic island through a financial meltdown.

* Gisladottir, born Dec. 31, 1954, has been Iceland's foreign minister since May 2007 after her party formed a coalition government with former Prime Minister Geir Haarde's Independence Party.

* Gisladottir on Jan. 26 appeared to rule herself out from becoming prime minister, saying she planned to take a leave of absence for one or two months.

* A founding member of the SDA in 2000 and of the Women's Party in 1982, she has previously been mayor of Reykjavik and sat on the board of the central bank.

* Her party lost out to the Independents in the last election but is the second biggest in parliament. Gisladottir and the SDA have been much warmer towards embracing the European Union than Haarde's party.

* She was diagnosed with a brain tumour after she passed out at a meeting of the United Nations general assembly last September. She underwent surgery in New York and has since had treatment in Sweden. The tumour has since been confirmed to be benign.

* A mother of two, Gisladottir has a degree in history and literature from the University of Iceland and has done post-graduate research at the University of Copenhagen. She is married to a university lecturer in Chinese.

(Editing by Richard Balmforth)

(Sources: Icelandic parliament and government Web sites)

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