However, the sprawling commercial capital Abidjanwas as busy as ever, its streets snarled with traffic jams and its street markets packed with shoppers.

Ivory Coast incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo faces challenges as his rival has called for general strike on Monday, and as West African leaders are planning a meeting on Tuesday aimed at warning the defiant man.


Gbagbo's rival Alassane Ouattara, who has been recognized as president by the international community but is trapped in his besieged headquarters hotel protected by UN peacekeepers, had called for a national shut-down.


However, the sprawling commercial capital Abidjan, one of West Africa's biggest ports and the key to controlling the country, was as busy as ever, its streets snarled with traffic jams and its street markets packed with shoppers.
Ouattara's party had called on all citizens to stop work and to stay off until Gbagbo stepped down. "We should not let them steal our victory," said the RHDP party, in a statement signed by its director, Alphonse Djedje Mady.
But the statement came out late, and was not carried by the pro-Gbagbo state media. The incumbent's security forces keep the south of the country in an iron grip, and a previous attempt to stage a protest was met with deadly force.
On the other hand, Leaders from Benin, Cape Verde and Sierra Leone are to meet Tuesday, carrying a message from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) that Gbagbo must step down.
However, defiant Gbagbo has warned that ECOWAS' threat of military action could plunge the region into war and endanger the millions of West African migrants living in Ivory Coast.
"If there is internal disorder, a civil war, there will be dangers, because we will not let our law, our constitution, be trampled on. People should get that idea out of their heads," Gbagbo told the French daily Le Figaro.
"We're not afraid. We are the ones who are attacked. We have the law on our side. How far are those attacking us prepared to go?" he demanded.
West African leaders met last week and said if Gbagbo stays "the community will be left with no alternative but to take other measures, including the use of legitimate force, to achieve the goals of the Ivorian people."
Gbagbo branded the threat part of a Western plot directed by France and the United States, whom he accused of undermining Ivorian electoral procedures in order to propel Ouattara into power.