UPDATE 2-Brazil prosecutors accuse presidential candidate Alckmin of illegal campaign funding

Brazilian state prosecutors accused Geraldo Alckmin, a market-friendly presidential candidate, of administrative misconduct for allegedly taking 10 million reais ($2.40 million) in illegal campaign funding, a news website reported on Wednesday.

The charges - which are civil and not criminal, and must be accepted by a judge before going to trial - may hinder a campaign that has struggled to get off the ground, with Alckmin in fourth place and polling at 9 percent.

Further details were not immediately available.

However, the charges are unlikely to halt Alckmin's campaign. Under Brazilian law, a politician can only be barred from running if convicted of a crime that is upheld on appeal, which cannot possibly occur before next month's voting.

According to Jota, a website that specializes in judicial and regulatory affairs, prosecutors allege Alckmin took the campaign funds from Odebrecht SA, a scandal-plagued construction conglomerate when he was running for governor of Sao Paulo state.

Alckmin's campaign in an emailed response denied any wrongdoing on the part of the candidate and accused the prosecutors of filing charges just a month ahead of the election.

Prosecutors for the state of Sao Paulo, who are in charge of the investigation, declined to comment. They canceled a press conference they had scheduled for 2 p.m. local (1700 GMT).

The charges come a day after Fernando Haddad, the likely presidential candidate for Brazil's leftist Workers Party (PT), was charged with corruption by state prosecutors in Sao Paulo, charges he denied.

While neither of the politicians' campaigns is likely to be stopped, the accusations could hurt the candidates in a year in which Brazilians are increasingly fed up with endemic corruption that has been revealed during four years of intense political graft investigations.