  The measurement of the heavy-flavour production cross sections in pp
collisions at the LHC will allow to test perturbative QCD calculations in a new
energy domain. Moreover, within the physics program of the ALICE experiment, it
will provide the reference for the study of medium effects in Pb-Pb collisions,
where heavy quarks are regarded as sensitive probes of parton-medium
interaction dynamics. We present the status and first preliminary results of
charm and beauty production measurements with the ALICE experiment, using
hadronic D meson decays and semi-leptonic D and B meson decays, including the
first cross section measurement of muons from heavy flavour decays at forward
rapidity. We also describe the preliminary cross section measurement for J/psi
production, obtained using the di-electron decay channel at central rapidity
and the di-muon decay channel at forward rapidity.
