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.
