The inclusive distributions of gluons and pions are calculated with absolute normalization for high-energy nucleon--nucleon collisions. The results for several unintegrated gluon distributions from the literature are compared. The gluon distribution proposed recently by Kharzeev and Levin based on the idea of gluon saturation is tested against DIS data from HERA. We find huge differences in both rapidity and transverse momentum distributions of gluons and pions in nucleon--nucleon collisions for different models of unintegrated gluon distributions. The approximations used recently in the literature are discussed. The Kharzeev--Levin gluon distribution gives extremely good description of momentum distribution of charged hadrons at midrapidities. Contrary to a recent claim in the literature, we find that the gluonic mechanism discussed does not describe the inclusive spectra of charged particles in the fragmentation region, i.e. in the region of large |y| for any unintegrated gluon distribution from the literature.

PACS numbers: 12.38.Bx, 13.85.Hd, 13.85.Ni