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Union leaders cancel meeting with senior Guinea officials amid growing international calls for the veteran president Lansana Conte to end his five-day-old state of emergency and negotiate a political settlement with unions opposed to his 23-year rule. Guinea's unions on Saturday (February 17) called off talks with the government aimed at ending protests in which more than 120 people have died, saying they would not negotiate until President Lansana Conte lifted martial law. with unions opposed to his 23-year rule. Amid concern that growing protests could shatter a fragile calm in a volatile region, Nigeria's former military ruler General Ibrahim Babangida led a delegation from the West African regional body ECOWAS to the coastal capital Conakry on Saturday. "We wouldn't like to see Guinea get into a very chaotic situation. We have had previous experiences in Liberia and Sierra Leone," Babangida told journalists after meeting Conte, citing brutal decade-long civil wars in those nations. "Guinea is a very important country within the sub-region. The leadership of ECOWAS wouldn't like to see that happen," said the Nigerian, who said he was leading an "exploratory mission" and did not meet union representatives. More than 90 people, almost all civilians, were killed in an 18-day general strike last month which halted the key bauxite industry in the world's largest exporter and shook the grip on power of the ailing Conte, a reclusive army general in his 70s.