  The physics programme of the ALICE experiment at CERN-LHC comprises besides
studies of high-energy heavy-ion collisions measurements of proton-proton
interactions at unprecedented energies, too. This paper focuses on the global
event characterisation in terms of the multiplicity distribution of charged
hadrons and mean transverse momentum. These bulk observables become accessible
because the detector features excellent track reconstruction, especially at low
transverse momenta. The measurement of strange hadrons is of particular
interest since the strange-particle phase-space was found to be suppressed
beyond canonical reduction at lower center-of-mass energies and the production
mechanism of soft particles is not yet fully understood. Here we benefit in
particular from particle identification down to very low transverse momentum,
i.e. 100 - 300 MeV/c, giving access to spectra and integrated yields of
identified hadrons.
  Equipped with these features, ALICE will play a complementary role w.r.t.
other LHC experiments. New interest in the soft part of pp collisions arose
recently and new insights in the physics of the underlying event are expected
from both, theory and experiment.
