The Rees algebra of a positive normal affine semigroup ring

Let R be a positive normal affine semigroup ring of dimension d and let be the maximal homogeneous ideal of R. We show that the integral closure of is equal to for all n ∈ℕ with n ≥ d − 2. From this we derive that the Rees algebra R[t] is normal in case that d ≤ 3. If emb dim(R) = d + 1, we can give a necessary and sufficient condition for R[t] to be normal.