Ocean general circulation models which are constrained by altimetry data usually assimilate only temporal sea-surface height anomalies. It is known that this is not enough to correct the mean ocean state. Here we present first results of assimilating the full (absolute) dynamical topography into a steady state version of a finite element ocean model (FEOM) for the North Atlantic. This makes it possible to notably reduce the model-data misfit especially in the western part of the basin and in the southern Labrador Sea. © 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.