LECCE, Italy — Financial chiefs from the Group of Eight industrialized nations yesterday offered their most optimistic assessment yet of the global crisis, noting encouraging signs of economic stabilization and calling for an "exit strategy" from the policies that have been used to stimulate growth around the world.

After two days of meetings in Lecce, the eight finance ministers — including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and his counterparts from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan and Russia — also agreed to create "a set of common principles and standards governing the conduct of international business and finance."

The strategy for obtaining those goals, they said in a communique, would be known going forward as "the Lecce Framework," with the objective of identifying and filling in the regulatory gaps that helped cause the current crisis. Geithner, in particular, called on international banking regulators to this year map out better ways to "quickly resolve failures of cross-border financial firms."

SIX FLAGS INC. FILES FOR CHAPTER 11

NEW YORK — Amusement-park operator Six Flags Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday and is seeking an expedited approval from the court of its pre-negotiated reorganization plan.

The New York-based company said the reorganization will deleverage its balance sheet by about $1.8 billion, and has support of the lenders' steering committee and the administrative agent for the company's $1.1 billion senior secured credit facility. The plan also eliminates more than $300 million in redeemable preferred stock obligations.

The Chapter 11 filing will have no impact on the day-to-day operations of its 20 parks in the U.S., Mexico and Canada, the company said.

TICKETS TO LIBERTY'S CROWN SELL OUT FAST

NEW YORK — Hoping to visit Lady Liberty's crown when it reopens July 4? Dream on.

Tickets to visit the Statue of Liberty's iconic headpiece for the first three days after its reopening sold out within hours yesterday. The crown has been closed since the Sept. 11 attacks.

About 240 people will get to visit the crown each day, with only 30 people let in per hour for safety reasons.

Reservations can be made up to a year in advance by calling 877-523-9849 or going to www.statuecruises.com.

CHINA QUARANTINES U.S. STUDENTS, ADULTS

CARLSBAD, Calif. — A private school in Southern California says 36 of its students have been quarantined in China while they are tested for the swine flu virus.

The ninth-grade students are from the Pacific Ridge School in the San Diego County city of Carlsbad.

School head Eileen Mullady said the teens were at the end of a 13-day educational tour of China when a few students developed the sniffles.

She said Chinese health officials decided on Thursday to quarantine the students and seven chaperones in a hotel. They're expected to fly home early next week.

GAS LEAK CAUSED SAUSAGE-PLANT BLAST

GARNER, N.C. — An explosion that killed three workers at a North Carolina Slim Jim plant was caused by a natural gas leak that ignited in a room housing vacuum pumps for sealing the sausage snacks, authorities said yesterday.

It will now be up to state and federal workplace investigators to determine how the leak happened and what caused it to ignite in Tuesday's blast at the ConAgra Foods Inc. plant in Garner, said Earl Woodham, an agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

ATF agents believe the gas was sparked by a piece of equipment such as a fan motor or thermostat, but Woodham said another cause, like static electricity, couldn't be ruled out.