TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas' plan to have the nation's largest private-prison operator build a new state prison is in limbo after several top Republican lawmakers backed away from supporting the project.

GOP Gov. Sam Brownback cancelled a Thursday morning meeting on the project with the Legislature's top eight leaders just before it was set to begin. He had scheduled it to get their final approval, something required by a state law enacted last year.

The Department of Corrections wants Tennessee-based CoreCivic Inc. to build the new, 2,432-bed prison to replace the state's oldest and largest pr...