This paper discusses some aspects of the initial proton--proton physics program with the ALICE experiment at LHC. For initial low luminosity runs ALICE has possibilities comparable to the two dedicated p+p experiments at LHC plus the advantage of a low p_T acceptance in the central barrel. It will therefore play an important role in the understanding of the minimum bias proton--proton collisions in the LHC energy regime. The experiment is briefly described and aspects of the initial proton--proton program are discussed in terms of physics, statistics, detector performance and analysis.

PACS numbers: 13.85.Hd